Tom
by aperfectsong
Summary: Ginny reflects on her relationship with Tom Riddle.


All my life, I've never really felt like a girl: I grew up wearing curtain-patched overalls that my brothers had grown out of; my hair was always kept short and dirty (because I could only stand so many baths in stale, dirty water). When I was ten and got my first period, my household was thrown into a perpetual state of shock that I was indeed female. So naturally, when Tom Riddle came along, treating me like the young lady I was (the young lady that Harry failed to acknowledge) and telling me that I could be beautiful, I fell—not in love with the story-book idea of romance—I fell because I saw him stick his foot out to trip me, and I tripped anyway.

It was an awkward, twisted sort of romance.

It started out innocently enough, a couple words scratched into an old journal.

_My name is Ginevra Molly Weasley and I'm starting my first year at Hogwarts this year._

Hello Ginevra. My name is Tom Riddle.

I didn't reply right away – I was skeptical. My journal had written back to me and it was a boy. But fter a while of thinking about it, I decided that I would make my first new friend, and stupidly, I wrote back.

_Everyone calls me Ginny or Gin, but I like Ginevra better. The only time anyone calls me Ginevra is when I get into trouble._

I'll call you Ginevra. I think it's a beautiful name and you're probably a very beautiful girl.

No one had ever called me beautiful before, so I blushed. At that moment, I fell in love with his handwriting, not with him. Not yet. That would come much later.

_Thank you, Tom. I'm eleven. How old are you?_

I'm sixteen.

Ginevra, how do you get into trouble?

_Sometimes I prank some of my brothers and only of my older brothers even taught me a hex. It's called the Bat-Bogey hex and it makes someone get attacked by bat bogeys. My mom got mad after he taught it to me though and my other brother told me to act like a girl._

I'm sorry to hear that. Your brothers don't sound very nice. How many do you have?

_Well, there's Ron and he's 12. Fred and George are twins and they're 14. They get into a lot of trouble with my mom for pranks. Percy is 16 and he's a prefect. Charlie is 19 and Bill is 21 and they don't live with us anymore._

_Do your brothers always tease you?_

_Percy doesn't tease anybody. He just studies all the time so he can be head boy next year. Fred and George don't really tease me that much because I prank Ron better than they do. But they were teasing me on the train about Harry Potter._

Who is Harry Potter?

_You don't know how Harry Potter is? I thought you were 16._

I was 16 in 1944.

_1944? That's even before my mom and dad came to Hogwarts. No wonder you don't know who Harry Potter is. I'll tell you._

Before you begin, can I ask what year it is?

_It's 1992._

Wow. I wonder if I'm still alive. Do you think when you have free time you can check in the library? There should be a book that says when all of the past Hogwarts students graduated and when they died.

_You came to Hogwarts? What house were you in? I just got sorted into Gryffindor with all of my brothers. My whole family was in Gryffindor._

Well, you must be very brave to have grown up with so many brothers. I was in Slytherin.

_Slytherin? My mom told me that most of the Slytherins are purebloods and that they don't like people who aren't pureblooded. My family is pureblooded, but I don't think it's very nice not to like someone because of what they were born as. You can't control who your parents are._

Don't worry Ginevra, I'm a half-blood. Your mom is right about that though. I pretended to be a pure-blood at school because a lot of the Slytherins didn't like half-bloods and muggle-borns. There aren't many muggle-borns in Slytherin though. But you were telling me about your brothers teasing you?

_They said I have a crush on Harry Potter. Oh Harry Potter is Ron's friend. He's famous because when he was a baby, he killed He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. You-Know-Who tried to kill him and he just couldn't. He used the unforgivable killing curse and it went back at him and bounced off Harry._

Does anyone know why? I've never heard of a killing curse not working.

_No one knows. It was a miracle._

I really should have realized something when I looked up Tom's death day and found that it was Halloween, 1981— the same day Harry had supposedly vanquished Voldemort. I should have realized that when he asked me about Harry, he wasn't interested in a school girl's crush. He was interested in Harry only because he wanted revenge – he was only interested in my feelings for Harry because he wanted to use them against me and then destroy them.

Then things started happening that I couldn't explain, not even to Tom, my best friend. I woke up nearly every night with a horrible nightmare of a large snake, wrapping itself around me. I once found myself with blood smeared on my best set of school robes.

But it was Halloween night when he showed me why I wasn't like my brothers; "You're a girl," he said. "You're made differently," like I was a hindrance to the species. That's when I knew.

But still, I loved him. I loved him because his words kept me company through lonely nights and I loved him in dreams where he would protect me from my brothers' teasing. I loved him because he never ignored me. I loved him because I had no other choice.


End file.
